And The Winner Is… Iraq Oil Development Contracts Awarded to Shell and Petronas

A joint venture between the UK’s Shell and Malaysia’s Petronas oil companies has won the right to develop Iraq’s giant Majnoon oil field.

A total of 44 companies took part in a bid for 10 fields in the second such auction since the invasion in 2003. Shell and Petronas beat a rival bid from France’s Total and China’s CNPC.

Although Majnoon is a huge oil field, with reserves of 13 billion barrels of oil, it currently produces just 46,000 barrels per day.

Iraq is an attractive, but difficult prospect for the international oil industry. The reserves are vast, much of it is relatively cheap to extract and foreign contractors are welcomed by the Iraqi government.